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My little space on the web where I blog about comics and comic books, drawing and illustration, graphic design, writing stories, and a few tips and tutorials from time to time about them. I'll also share bits about movies, theater, music, (maybe even cooking!) and whatever strikes my fancy.

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The Zaturnnah musical would have performed 41 times when the present run ends tonight. As it stands, the musical is the longest-running production of Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) in its 20-year history. Still, with tickets sold out again, TP wants to give it another go.

Makati City, particularly the RCBC theater, is being tapped by TP to be the venue of the musical come June 2007. I heard that they may announce this at the end of tonight's show (which I won't be able to attend due to our out-of-town trip) so take my little announcement as a teaser until something official spreads.

With 41 shows, I personally think that Eula Valdez, Tuxqs Rutaquio, and Joey Paras should take a semi-break from the role and have alternates. Fantastic as they are, having new blood is always interesting to see. Keeps things fresh. But who can TP tap to match the prowess of a fine set of actors? I'm sure they'll think of something.

The night before the 25th, I invited my boss to watch Todd Field's Little Children, an emotionally-charged film based on Tom Perrotta's novel. With nearly a dozen awards to its name, Little Children is a slice-of-life tale that layers lust, longing, fear and innocence in one smoothly flowing narrative. It's an adult film, not only because of intimate scenes between Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson, but it exposes what it means to be an adult. It reveals how, despite our age and experience, we're still kids in search of acceptance, love and affirmation. I'm really glad that Jackie Earle Haley got an Oscar nod for supporting actor. His role may not have been the most saintly, but his scenes affected me the most.

Nothing much happened on the 25th apart from work. I broke my low-carb diet by bingeing on Yellow Cab pizza and Friday's desserts with my co-workers. Later that night, I went to the gym.

Last January 5, the American Dialect Society (ADS) voted "plutoed" as the word of the year. To pluto means to demote or devalue someone or something, as was experienced by the former planet Pluto when it was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" in August.

The full list of nominations can be found here. Other words nominated by the members of the group included:lancing - the forced public outing of a closeted gay celebrity;lactard - a person suffering from lactose intolerance; andflog - an advertising site disguised as a blog.

Last year, the ADS (which was founded in 1889) voted "truthiness" for 2005. For the year before that, it was "red state, blue state, purple state". Other past winners are commonly used today: metrosexual, weapons of mass destruction, and "not!" (the expression).

While the voting result is widely reported in media, noted lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower says in his Slate column:But once in a while we like to blow off steam,…

While checking out my site statistics, I found visitors coming from a site I've never encountered before. It turns out that there's this industrious chap named Tino Buntic who compiled the pics of 300 bloggers and placed them all in one site as a showcase sample of blogdom. There are a few other Filipinos in there, too. It's a great linking project.

His goal is to compile 2000 bloggers. If you want to be part of it, just leave a comment in his 2000 Bloggers entry. Oh, but you have to have a photo of yourself in your blog.

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The Zaturnnah poster isn't ready yet, but should be come Friday. I'm excited to see how it looks. And the original soundtrack has been selling quite well at the theater.

What's more, this weekend's shows are virtually sold out. As of last Saturday, the P600 tickets have been accounted for, with only a number of P500 tickets remaining. My sister texted today, saying Ticketnet ran out when she tried to get seats for thi…

The original soundtrack of Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Ze Muzikal is now available online through Digijooze. To download the songs, you have to register with the site, though there's no published price tag. They should include the price there, methinks.

The two-CD set contains 25 tracks all told, which includes three bonus tracks. You can find the track list here. The image appearing here is the cover of the label, designed by yours truly. Thanks to Ballyhoo Records for allowing me to do this--I've only done one CD package design before this, and it isn't even available commercially.

I got word that the set will find its place in record bars towards the end of January, but copies will be sold during the musical rerun which begins tonight. As usual, I'll be attending a number of performances.

Another good resource courtesy of Google's brain drippings is Google Notebook. A fine research tool, Google Notebook allows you to instantly add sections of a website into a virtual notebook which you can access at a future time.

Use your Google account to log it, afterwhich you will be prompted to download (less than 30KB) a widget which will eventually appear on the lower right side of your browser window. The new link accesses your notebook which displays as a small window--you can resize it to full screen if you need to.

During the time I was emotionally distraught, I'd scour the Web for self-help and psychology resources. When I'd find something that I could use, I'd cut it out and paste it into my word processor. Right now, with Google Notebook, I just highlight the text I want copied, right-click, and select "Note this". The highlighted text appears in my notebook, along with the link to the source site.

If you're like me who has a set of frequently visited websites or blogs, or would like to visit all the blogs on your list but end up frustrated over the lack of updates, then maybe you need a feed aggregator.

A feed aggregator tells you which sites have been updated, and many of them have an extra frame that actually displays the contents. I've been using Google Reader for a few days now, and it's saved me a lot of time opening and closing multuple browser tabs or windows. All you need to do is log in using your Google account, and the rest is pretty self-explanatory. Unlike many aggregators, you don't have to download new software; it's all presented to you on your browser.

Unfortunately, not all of the blogs on my list have been set to be syndicated as an RSS feed, so I can't place them on my aggregator. If you're on Blogger, all you have to do is go to Settings > Site Feed and choose "Short" or "Full" on the Allow Blog Feed drop dow…

2007 started quite oddly for me, though nothing groundbreaking happened. Maybe it's because I didn't feel the holidays come and go, which is bad.

My resolutions for this year are pretty standard fare. I haven't done the regular gym thing in four months, so I've piled on a bit of weight. Just a bit, but enough for a few people, and my pants size, to notice. I started doing a quasi-low carb diet last week, and the effects are making themselves known. After a week of almost-zero rice, pasta and bread, my pants are getting looser.

The downside of this is the woozy feeling in my head. I wouldn't call it being cranky, more like my brain being replaced by a bowling ball. Also, it's tough finding things to eat. I go to the grocery store for the pre-packed salads, then head to KFC for a regular box of Fun Shots. Or, I go to Yoshinoya for its green salad with chicken strips, plus a bowl of chicken udon, though I don't eat the noodles. My greatest discovery, though, is …

As you may have guessed, this poster is a combination of five pieces of art. Took me a total of four nights on and off to do it. I'm not brilliant in coloring as, say, Ed Tadeo or Joel Chua, but I think the overall effect works.

We hope to start selling this 23" x 35" thing by the opening night of the Zaturnnah musical rerun. That's Friday next week. But I'm sure it'll find it's way to a retail store sooner or later.

Apple's newest addition to the gadget-envy catalog is gunning for a chunk of the smartphone market. The iPhone has all the audio and video features of the iPod, but now it can surf the internet, and lets you make calls. I really like the touch-screen user interface, a la Spielberg's Minority Report.

I've never owned an iPod, and I don't see myself getting one anytime soon. I've got a low-capacity MP3 player that runs on one AAA battery, and it gives me my audio fix at half the price. And while I like large phones with large screens, the iPhone alone screams, "Look at me! I'm expensive! Steal me!" Props to Apple's product design team for a stylish and innovative product, but its not the most practical device for me.

Yayoh posted a question on the tagboard about student discounts for the Zaturnnah musical. Since messaging on the tagboard has a limited character count, I'll answer the question in a blogpost.

The reality involves the revenues. While Tanghalang Pilipino would want as many people as possible to see their work, they still need to pay the actors, staff, and utilities expenses, as well as realize some kind of profit. Discounted ticket prices may translate to packed theaters, but the intimate size of the Huseng Batute theater makes it difficult to earn enough. It's that line that separates business and art--Tanghalang Pilipino needs the business to be able to continue pursuing its art.

If there's any consolation, the undiscounted ticket price is still cheaper than the other major musicals being staged here. And the strong word-of-mouth guarantees an experience that's worth every peso. Medyo mahal nga para sa mga estudyante, pero puwede naman ninyo hatakin ang mga magulang. D…

Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Ze Muzikal continues with a fourth run for 10 shows at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute. After bagging an Aliw Award for her performance in the musical, Eula Valdes will once more strut her stuff from January 19 to 28. The usual suspects will also be there--Tuxqs Rutaquio, Joey Paras, Arnold Reyes, Agot Isidro, and Kalila Aguilos. Select shows will feature Janvier Daily (I may be wrong about the spelling), who'll show off his sinews as the new Dodong. For more information, call Tanghalang Pilipino through 832-3661, or visit Ticketworld outlets.

The original cast recording is in its final production stages, and will debut on opening night. Ballyhoo Records will produce and market the 20-track double-disc set nationwide as well as online. Tuxqs and I were able to dip our drums yesterday in Vince DeJesus' remixed and remastered obra, and were bowled over by the new tricks he added in the arrangement of some of the songs. So for t…

Out of the nine filmfest entries, I was also able to see Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo and Super Noypi. Well... most of Super Noypi. I'm so sorry, Quark, but I only got through about 65% of the film. As the tale wore on, I realized that I wasn't the target market, and the charm of Sandara Park's goofiness could sustain itself for only so long.

Unlike other viewer's opinions, I didn't mind Jao Mapa playing Mark Herras' dad. What I did find unsettling was the red background graphic slapped on the bad guy's multi-paneled monitor--a graphic that looked like the PLDT logo.

KKK was good. Not great, just good, about 8.5 stars out of 10. Joey Reyes may not have been gunning for cinematic genius, but the Juday-Ryan starrer was highly entertaining, consistent and well-paced. And what they say about Ryan Agoncillo's natural acting prowess? Lo and behold, it's true.

I attended a wake last weekend. Our high school biology teacher passed away. It's been 20 years since I graduated from high school. Despite two decades having passed, some of the faculty members appeared only five or ten years older. Is that the effect of being around young people for so long?

Here's the official, albeit somewhat incomplete, website of Marist School in Marikina. I was Batch '87. I started studying there at first grade, in 1977.

Oh, for those who're familiar with the Zaturnnah musical... Tuxqs Rutaquio and Chris Martinez are also from Marist, around three batches lower. Some trivial trifle there...pay little heed.

When I was in college, a friend told me of a time he and our common friends were having lunch in the canteen. He saw this guy at another table and said, "Hey, that's what Carl would look like if he were a muscular." Strange, considering that DLSU is such a small campus and I've never bumped into the double.

Since then, there'd be folks who tell me that they'd seen me somewhere in the metropolis at a certain time, and I swear I was never there. (Or maybe they saw my brother; people mistake us for twins sometimes.) The closest encounter I ever had to seeing someone who resembled me was a picture in the newspaper, of a hunky guy who was a member of a dragon boat team. I kept the pic for a time, perhaps to prep me for an off-and-on gym crusade a decade later, until it decomposed at will in my wallet.

Last night, my eight year-old niece came up to me with a 2007 calendar from National Bookstore. She said in Filipino, "Uncle, he looks like you." She was poi…

I recently stopped by Comic Quest in Megamall, and found out how far behind I was in the goings-on of comicdom. I ceased buying the pamphlets because the price had become so prohibitive, and promised myself that I'd just go for the trades. But then, upon visiting Fully Booked at the Gateway Mall, I was equally dumbfounded.

Right now, I'm hardly familiar with the characters I loved as a teener. And I think I'm presently partial to limited series featuring new stories and characters, graphic novels that don't require me to spend on an existing series just so I could play catch-up. Or, an elseworlds/alternate reality type book would be good.

My dear mom was cleaning out the cabinets in my sister's room, and found a trove of old art from yours truly. It's amazing to see how much I've evolved, for better or worse.

Take this page, for instance, from a four-page sequential sample I made for DC, sent out in 2003 (click the image to enlarge). I used the script of Neil Gaiman's Calliope, included in one of the Sandman trades, so those who've read that story might find something familiar in what I did. Yes, I harbored a fantasy of doing something for Vertigo, even if my style was screaming pop.

This is one of the few times I've tried to make my pencils as tight as possible, paying attention to both the visual requirements and the possible placement of balloons and captions. I was particularly happy with the sample, but I guess DC didn't find it good enough.

Rewind to 2000. Before I published One Night In Purgatory, I was toying with a story that involved superheroes, a murder mystery, homosexuality, perso…

I've had a long and fruitful career in graphic design, article writing, and magazine art direction, and I've dabbled in theatre acting, playwriting, and teaching in university. But Fate led me to making comics, where I've found unexpected and flattering success.